How to make money in a real estate staging business

One of the top reasons for not making enough money in a home staging or real estate enhancement business is not charging enough.

Here are three tips to help you establish your fees and make sure you're charging enough:

1. Consider all the time you don’t get paid for.

For example, preparing for a client appointment, answering potential clients' questions in advance, scheduling and re-scheduling appointments, travel time, follow up calls (before, during and after the project), keeping track of client expenses and time on each project, bookkeeping, standing in line at the bank, etc.

If you think $100 or even $250 per hour is too much to charge a client, remember that you have many hours you put in on behalf of clients that you aren't actually charging for.

2. Consider what tangible benefit you bring to your home staging clients.

Have you fallen into the trap of feeling embarrassed about your rates? How can you address this issue?

Do you believe you provide real value to your clients? If you don’t believe this, it will be very difficult to convince them.

It might help to think about how much financial value you can bring to a client if you do the job well.

Done well, a home staging project should generate anywhere from $10,000 to $50,000 profit for the homeowner. So, why shouldn't a home stager or real estate enhancement specialist be paid well?

3. Remember that when you're in a service business you are selling your time.

You have limited "inventory" so make sure you're not always "on sale!" Since you can't manufacture more hours in a week, the only way to earn more is to charge more for your time.

The Staging Diva course “The Business of Home Staging: What you need to start and how to grow” includes a detailed discussion of pricing strategy. Taught by Debra Gould also known as "The Staging Diva", who has an MBA and has been supporting her family as an independent entrepreneur since 1989.

She knows what she's talking about because she's also built a lucrative home staging business from scratch in a very competitive market.

If you join the Staging Diva course, you'll learn what Debra Gould charged clients three years ago and how she systematically increased her rates over time. She'll also share the single biggest discovery she made in how to best price home staging or real estate enhancement services for profit.

You'll also learn what home stagers charge all over North America in The Staging Diva course and how not to make the same mistakes they are!

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Real Estate Staging expert Debra Gould also known as The Staging Diva is president of Six Elements Inc., a leading home staging company that provides free information to raise home staging industry standards and build awareness amongst homeowners and their real estate agents about the benefits of decorating a house to sell.

Debra Gould developed The Staging Diva Program to create opportunities for others to grow their own profitable home staging, real estate enhancement businesses.